Kingdom of the Blind
by Just Jamie
Summary: Set between the tv episodes The Doctor Dances and Boom Town this story features The Doctor, Rose and Captain Jack Harkness.A terrible enemy from the Timelords past is awakening from a long slumber. And it's hungry.
1. Chapter 1

"So where are we now Doctor?" Rose asked as she stepped out of the Tardis doors.

"He won't admit it, but I don't think he knows." Captain Jack Harkness was hot on Rose's heels as they walked into what appeared to be a forest.

"This," said the Doctor, "Is megopolis." The Doctor spoke as he secured the Tardis doors, as he continued, he turned to face his travelling companions. "It's one of the largest, most technologically advanced planets in the Cosmos and..." He stopped as he gazed for the first time at his surroundings. "Hang about, that's not right. We should be outside the Central archive building." The Doctor looked around the area in consternation. "This should be a bustling urban landscape."

Rose, who had wandered off a few scant meters from the Tardis, pulled away some of the shrubbery that blocked her advance into the wilds, and a gasp left her lips. "Doctor? Jack? You'd best have a look at this." The edge of a marble like structure seemed to erupt from the foliage in front of her. The Doctor was almost instantly behind her, looking on in disbelief.

"Told you. It's the Central Archive building. But it looks like it hasn't been used in Centuries. What's happened here?" The Doctor looked genuinely disturbed by this turn of events. "Come on, I see the main entrance over there." The Doctor almost ran off towards a once regal entrance, Rose and Jack found it difficult to keep up with the Doctor's sudden burst of speed. On her way, Rose noticed that most of the Ground level windows had been smashed, several of the higher windows had also been demolished, she looked at Jack who was pacing her, step for step.

"Vandals?" She asked.

"I'd give 'em all Asbo's." Jack looked serious, despite his flippant response. "I don't like this Rose, you stay by either me or the Doctor." Rose felt a smile touch her lips at Jack's concern.

"Aye, aye cap'n" She joked, Jack stared back at her bemused by her retort.

Up ahead, the Doctor had finally reached the main entrance, only to find the door barricaded, from inside. "Now why would they have done that?" He began shoving at a table that had been upended and used to block the majority of the doorway. "Jack, some help please?" Jack was still trying to catch his breath after the short run.

"You're gonna be the death of my Doc." He said as he put his shoulder alongside the Doctors and pushed with all of his strength. Working in unison, they felt the table move slightly.

"You two are useless, you know that?" Rose's voice rang out from behind them, both men turned as Rose approached with a large metal rod. She slid it into the gap between the doorway and the table creating a makeshift fulcrum. "If you want a job done right, you get a woman in." She smiled as she started to push on one end of the fulcrum, even working on her own, she noticed the table moving slightly, further than both Jack and the Doctor had managed to budge it. "See? Give me a big enough lever, and I can move the thingie."

"World." The Doctor Grunted as he too put his weight behind the fulcrum.

"You what?" Rose asked?

"He means that the saying is, 'give me a big enough lever, and I can move the world." Jack added, as he too put his strength into pushing the lever.

"Oh, right. I knew that, just wanted to check you two did as well." Rose bluffed as the table juddered a few feet away from the doorframe, leaving ample room for the trio to enter the building.

"Alright Rose. I want you to stay close to either Jack or myself while we're in here. We don't know what to expect, and it could be dangerous." The Doctor stared earnestly at Rose. "If anything happened to you... Well, your mother might slap me again, and I don't want that." He smiled lightly, but Rose could hear the seriousness in his voice.

As one, they entered the abandoned building. "OK, the main records room is through here." The Doctor strode off purposefully towards a large black granite doorway. Rose looked around, behind the table that had blocked their way, there was a pile of wood, stone and what looked like computer terminals. Anything that could add weight to the door itself.

"They really didn't want someone to get in here, did they?" Jack grunted in response, "and what's that smell?"

"You don't want to know, Rose. Trust me." Jack knew the stench of death. Old death, but that kind of smell never really went away. It hung in the air and stagnated with time. Jack took Rose's arm and followed the Doctor. As they entered the room behind the Doctor, they spotted him hunched over a terminal, prodding controls trying to make the thing work. In the chair in front of the terminal, there was a dessicated corpse. What flesh remained on it's form was ragged, and attatched to the skeleton by atrophied and decayed sinew. Rose clenched her eyes shut, but still the image lingered in her memory.

"There's no power." The Doctor tutted as he turned to face his friends, "I'm going to have to.." he noticed Rose's expression and immediately looked at the dead body in the chair, "ah, give me a moment." Rose kept her eyes closed as she heard a scraping noise, like something being dragged across the once polished floor. A few moments later she heard the Doctor's voice, "It's OK now Rose, it's gone." Rose opened her eyes, and true to his word, the Doctor had removed the corpse, and the chair it was sitting on. Rose could see the trail in the dust leading to a small door at the far end of the room.

"Now, as I was saying. I'll need to find a power source for this thing to run off. I need to find out what happened here."

"What about your sonic screwdriver? You're able to make that do everything else?" Rose asked in an uncharacteristicly hushed tone.

"Good girl. That's why I like having you around." The Doctor beamed at her as he pulled the device from his jacket pocket. He altered the settings on the device and placed it on the table next to the work terminal. A constant beam of blue light erupted from the doctor's sonic screwdriver, hitting the terminal. The computer, after a few seconds, lit up as it activated. "It's rebooting." The Doctor said. "Lets find out what's on here shall we?" The doctor struck a few controls on the keyboard. "It looks like it's a diary, a journal, let's see what's been going on." The Doctor hit another key, and the air behind the terminal shimmered as a figure appeared. "A hologram? Fantastic."

"Journal entry 6668548/58-6. This may very well be my final entry. They are at the door again tonight. I fear they may break through any time now. These savages, they've thrown it all away, they've killed us all." The figure began to sob, "and all because their Gods demand it. All science is heresy to them, but is it heretical, or a threat? I have worked so long trying to find out for sure, but I think I now understand the power they hold over my people. They are ancient. They are legend in almost all cultures, they are..." The hologram disappeared in a flurry of light and sound.

"The power must have been cut. Right then. It's ridiculously bad timing if you ask me." The Doctor looked around the room. "What happened here?"

Outside the building, figures approached. "Is it not as I told you? The temple of the heretics has been entered."

"Find the heretics, and kill them. Our Gods must be obeyed in all things.

To be continued.


	2. Chapter 2

Kingdom of the Blind Part 2

"Megopolis should be thriving now. What's happened here?" The Doctor paced around the ruins of the computer lab. The echoes of the last log entry by the poor scientist still ringing in his ears. "What kind of catastrophe could have befallen them to destroy them so completely in so short a time?"

"No offence Doctor, but it looks like this place hasn't been used for well over a hundred years, that's hardly a short time." Rose interjected.

"I mean relatively speaking Rose. There were no signs on the Tardis sensors of any natural disaster, no meteor strikes, no tectonic pressure, there are also no visible signs of external activity."

"External activity?"

"He means, nobody attacked them. The buildings are still standing, any kind of attack, and they would have been destroyed. A plague? Some kind of biological attack?"

"No," The Doctor replied to Jack's question. "The Tardis would have picked up any biological agents in the atmosphere, even after this long, there would have been some trace left." The Doctor looked away from his companions as though trying to glean the answers he sought from the wall in front of him.

"Maybe one of those guys knows what happened!" Rose said.

The Doctor didn't look around "What guys?"

"The guys who are standing right behind us with spears pointing at us." Rose replied. Jack and the Doctor both spun to face the newcomers.

"You have breached the heathen temple. For that you must die." One of the figures stepped to the front as he spoke, obviously a leader of some kind, he was dressed in basic animal skins with a few metallic adornments that the Doctor couldn't quite see from his vantage point, but he felt that he should recognise them..

"Die? Heathen temple? This is a place of knowledge, not a temple." As the Doctor spoke, the new arrivals winced in terror. "What? Why are you afraid of knowledge?" Again the panicked looks, genuine terror filled their eyes. "This situation seems frighteningly familiar to me." The Doctor said. "What happened here 100 years ago? Why did you all take a step backwards on your developmental cycle?" Before anyone could attempt to speak further a shrieking noise filled the building.

"Grishakk. Flee." The leader of the group shouted to his bretheren. "Leave the heretics to their fate." He was turned on his heels and running as he shouted, followed rapidly by the rest of the group.

"Uhm, what just happened?" Rose asked.

"They're more afraid of the 'Grishakk' than they are of us, apparently." The Doctor replied.

"What exactly is a Grishakk Doctor?" Jack asked as he looked around gripped as he was by the most basic human instinct. The fight or flight response. He knew he would rather flee, but he couldn't, not with the Doctor and Rose there. Someone had to look after them. They were smart, but stupid too. They wanted to stay, put things right, Jack could tell.

"I don't know what a Grishakk is, but from the noise it makes, and the reaction of the locals, I'll bet it's not friendly."

"If it really had been a Grishakk, you would most certainly be dead by now." A new voice resounded through the large room. All three travellers turned to try and locate it. In the wall that the Doctor had been looking at, a door suddenly appeared, and opened. "Welcome. I assure you, I am much more friendly than the tribesmen you just met. They worship the fallen one. I however do not. Please, enter and perhaps we can talk?"

"The Fallen one? Now that's an interesting name. Some kind of mythological character?" The Doctor asked as he walked through the now visible door.

"If only it were that simple. No, this creature truly did fall from the sky, some two hundred cycles since." The man, dressed in the same simple but elegant fatigues as the now deceased scientist in the other room, led the three travellers down a dimly lit stairway. At the bottom, he touched a red control, the panel turned green. "There. The holo display will disguise the door, we shouldn't have any more problems from them. If they do return, they will simply think that you have been devoured by the Grishakk. Now, I can tell simply by your attire that you are newcomers to our world. From where have you come?"

Jack almost pushed the Doctor out of the way in a bid to introduce himself, "Hi. I'm Captain Jack Harkness, this is the Doctor and Rose, I'm from a planet called Earth, so is Rose, and the Doctor here, well, he just travels about a lot." Jack wore his most ingratiating smile, without turning around he could feel the Doctors flicker of annoyance, he chose to ignore it. "We came here 'cos the Doctor said you were a technologically advanced society. For a moment there, I doubted him, " Jack turned to the Doctor "sorry."

"We were once as your friend said, a highly advanced and cultured society, from logs that we have managed to recover from before the dark times, it seems that we were devoted to higher purposes, higher ideals." The figure sagged somewhat in his chair. "I am Androsa. I am the last of the keepers of light. A haughty title to say the least, I keep and maintain the records of out people, the knowledge we gained, the power we once had. All of it, stored here, out of the reach of the regressives, and their overlords."

"I'm sorry." Rose reached over to Androsa and placed a hand on the mans shoulder, to try and ease the pain. Androsa flinched away.

"I am not used to being touched, I have been alone here for many cycles, since my father passed to the next world." Androsa smiled wanly at Rose, with tears welling in his eyes.

"Androsa?" The Doctor stepped forward, "what exactly happened here?"

"Ha, we became victims of our own thirst for knowledge Doctor. At an archaelogical dig on our Southern continent, we discovered what appeared at first to be a meteor crater. Upon closer inspection, it was found that something had crashed to our world many millenia ago, something that still lived." Andros turned from the group and flicked some controls on the panel in front of him. "This." An image filled the screen that made Rose recoil in horror. "She called herself Ariella. She..."

"Shouldn't be alive." The Doctor finished the sentence for Androsa. "Ariella was destroyed, before life even emerged on your world. The Queen Mother of all Vampires."


	3. Chapter 3

Dr Who: Kingdom of the Blind Part 3

"You're joking right?" Rose almost laughed. "Vampires are just made up. Aren't they? You know, Dracula and stuff? Right? I mean, Daleks I can handle, giant green farting aliens I can handle, but Vampires? You're taking the mick." As she continued her voice became more pleading, as she saw in the Doctors face a seriousness she hadn't seen since his showdown with the Dalek.

"Sorry Rose, but no. They haven't always been a work of fiction. You know better than anyone that sometimes fiction has an element of truth in there somewhere. Real events enter into folklore, stories are told and everyone lives happily knowing that these things could never happen in real life. But they did." The Doctor sagged further into his seat. "That thing, " he pointed at the monitor, still showing the giant creature, " is the last of the Great Vampires. Millenia ago, Rassilon, the greatest of my people, led a war against them. Just one of these creatures could suck the very life from an entire planet, without even thinking about it." The Doctor's eyes grew distant as he recalled legends and historical accounts from his people's past.

"Legends say that there was a final battle, and that one vampire escaped the fleet of bowships created by Rassilon. I tracked that one down some time ago, it had dimension jumped to E-Space. I destroyed it, but there should only have been one survivor."

"Seems your legends got it wrong Doctor." Jack said, putting his hand on the Doctors shoulder. Now he had finally realised where the Doctor had come from. He was a Timelord. Legends on countless planets told of how the Galaxy had been saved by the vampire threat by the great Timelords of Gallifrey, how the war had stretched across the Universe, no planet being left untouched. Other legends told of the downfall of Gallifrey, how the passing of the Timelord race was mourned throughout the Cosmos. Now Jack realised where the sadness in the Doctor's eyes came from. He was the last of a once great race. Sole survivor of a war, with a race more hideous than the vampires, the Daleks.

"NO. They weren't wrong. Just premature. The last of the Vampires will be destroyed! By me."

"You cannot destroy her." Androsa said weakly. "My people, they worship her, they would gladly die for her, she has some kind of thrall over them, I cannot explain it, almost over night, my people conceded full control to her, only a few of us were able to resist her influence, those of us who had a regressive gene that allow us empathic abilities. But even at the height of our population, these people accounted for less than 4 percent of our total population. Now anyone who shows resistance to her power is put to death as a heretic." Androsa sounded weary, his voice becoming distant. "My father, led an attack on her, taking all of the able bodied among us, they got as far as her citadel, pretending to be accolytes. One of her Regal guard detected them, and raised the alarm, none of them survived. I have lived here, in solitude, since I was little more than 4 years old. These machines are powered by my great grandfather's invention, a geothermal extraction unit, in the basement. My Grandfather, you saw his last recording? Outside?" The group of timetravellers nodded, "He invented the holographic unit that hides our sanctuary, it is completely undetectable, even if the others of my kind still had technology at their disposal, they would be unable to detect it. I have a protein synthesiser, Oh, where are my manners, may I offer you something to eat? Drink? The synthesiser can create almost any meal." Androsa livened up as he sprang to his feet, "anything? At all?"

"No thank you Androsa, I would like to ask you though. If your people are all under her influence, how is it that you are not?" The Doctor stared at Androsa intently, awaiting the man's reply.

"My Great Grandfather. He discovered that some of our people have inate empathic abilities. He devised a procedure that could trigger the regressive gene in our dna to activate the ability. Any who have the power, seem to be immune to her power."

"Have you ever tried using it on others?" Rose asked. "You know, like bring them over to your side?"

"They always travel in packs." Androsa used the word as though to describe animals. "I have never been able to isolate a single person to attempt the procedure." Androsa looked crestfallen as he spoke, "and now, it may be too late. According to my last scan, our total planetary population is less than 20,000. My race is being whittled away by this 'Vampire'" Androsa spat the final word as though it could taint him by just uttering it. "Our fertile lands are already turning to deserts, soon there will be nowhere to grow crops, we will die a slow and lingering death."

"No. You will die quickly. Our Goddess has decreed it."

The friends all spun round to see a figure in the doorway. "Who are you?" Androsa jumped from his chair in near panic.

"I am Illyan. Messenger of the Goddess." Illyan smiled, and as he did, his ragged and elongated canine teeth were clearly visible. "As an acolyte of the Goddess, I carry out her decree happily" Illyan walked forward, advancing quickly on Rose...

To be continued.


	4. Chapter 4

Kingdom of the Blind: Part 4

"Yeah right!" Rose shouted as she spun out of range of Illyan's reach. She lifted her foot towards the vampire's crotch. Illyan laughed as he snatched her foot in mid swing.

This entire exchange took less than ten seconds, which was more than enough time for the Doctor to have positioned himself at Rose's side. He lifted something from his pocket, "If that's your screwdriver, I don't think it's going to do much good here Doctor." Rose gasped as she continued to pull against the grip of the vampire.

The doctor held the content of his hand out in front of Illyan's face, Rose noticed it was a badge of some kind, a symbol made of swirls and folds of some gilt like metal. Rose felt sure that she heard a female voice singing. Illyan immediately recoiled, whether from the symbol or from the near whisperlike singing, Rose couldn't be sure, but whatever it was, the vampire was terrified by it. He spun on his heels and ran. "What the hell was that all about?" Rose asked, looking more closely at the symbol in the Doctor's hand, before he quickly replaced it in the pocket of his jacket.

"A relic. From Gallifrey. Something I have great faith in. Faith is a key defence against these creatures, in all their forms."

"So that's why crosses always work then?" Rose seemed proud of her logical deduction. The Doctor smiled, glad that Rose had gotten the idea.

"It can only hold them at bay though, even scare them off, it can't do them any real harm. It's the psychic energy that is generated when someone has faith, whatever it's basis, that the vampire's cannot understand or overcome. so for the most part, they run."

"Now they know where we are though. They'll come back. In greater numbers no doubt. Where can we go? What shall we do now?" Androsa had been pushed over the edge by the encounter, he was now in the firm grip of panic. "They'll kill us all, you know that. your trick can stop one of them but you can't stop them all, we're doomed"

The Doctor turned to the panicked man and placed a hand on his shoulder. At the Doctor's touch the man stopped shaking, the Doctor then spoke, in a slow rhythmic tone, almost hypnotic, "It will be alright Androssa." The man stared deep into the Doctor's eyes and calmed significantly.

"Did you just hypnotise him?" Rose asked, "Cos if you did, that is so totally cool."

"It's the force." The Doctor joked. Rose smiled at the quick pop culture reference, then shook her head and marvelled at the Doctor's ability once again to avoid a direct answer to a direct question.

"These vampires shouldn't give us much grief for a while yet anyway," Jack commented, "if this chronometer is right. We're only a few minutes shy of Dawn. Once the sun is up, they're powerless right?"

"No, sadly that is a myth. How do you think the species could traverse the Galaxy across entire star clusters if they were vulnerable to starlight. They're free to roam in the daylight as easily as we are. We must move quickly."

"Where to exactly?" Jack asked.

"The Tardis?" rose asked, her voice full of both hope and certainty that the answer would be no.

"No, we're going to find the Queen of the Vampires, and kill her." The look of fierce determination had returned to the Doctor's face. "Let's go."

The Doctor led the way to the door out of the Lab as he reached the bottom step, he turned and said to Androssa, "bring your Father's invention, the one that can free your people from the Queens control, maybe I can tweak it, increase it's range and scope."

"We tried for years to do that, it was hopeless." Androssa replied, though he picked up a small device anyway.

"There's no such word in the Doctor's vocabulary." Jack said, a reassuring smile crossing his face.

Back in the forrest the strange shape of the Tardis stood out like the proverbial sore thumb, but it was changing. The shape blurred, the corner's rounded out slightly. In a small room 25 levels below the Console room, a bank of deceptively ancient looking computer banks had sprung to life. Lights glowed and the tape reels spun in the cabinets. On a small display panel lights glowed, stark words stood out on the screen, the ominous words "Rassilon protocol 1, alpha, alpha 1 Initiated." Glowed and shimmered. The ancient engines of the Tardis powered up and the entire craft throbbed as the flow of power became more pronounced.

"Will you stop examining the back of your eyelids, we've got to get moving." Rose shouted at the Doctor, who had seemed lost in another world.

"Oh! Sorry, my mind must have wandered, where are we now?" The Doctor responded, looking around slightly confused.

"Where were you?" Rose asked.

"Right here. Didn't you see me, I didn't move from this spot."

"You know what I mean." rose retorted, her voice dripped sarcasm. The Doctor smiled gently. Rose could do nothing but forgive him his glib dismissal of her question.

"We are no more than ten minutes walk from The Citadel, the seat of the Queen's court." Androssa replied to the Doctor's first question. "Ariella had my people build a castle for her, one fitting a Queen. Its defences are myriad, however do you hope to gain entry."

"Knock on the front door, say hello, you know, the usual." The Doctor said as he absentmindedly tinkered with Androssa's device in one hand, his trusty sonic screwdriver in the other. "We only need to cause a distraction for a while." The Doctor's eyes seemed to lose focus again for a second then he was back again, "won't be long now." He said, smiling at Rose.

"I know it's probably pointless to ask, but what are you planning Doctor?" Rose asked nearly exasperated.

"Well, since you asked, I'm going to free as many of her slaves as I can, then I'm going to kill Ariella."

"And just how are you planning on doing that?" Jack asked. "If that image we saw was anything to go by, even some of these trees wouldn't be big enough to use as a stake for that creature."

"Oh, she's undoubtedly much bigger than that by now, she's had a few hundred years to slowly feed off this planet. Growing fatter, and hopefully, more complacent." The Doctor replied with a smile. He held up the device given to him by Androssa, "this, is a work of genius. It only needed a little amplitude adjustment, now it's got a range of about 22.5 metres, give or take."

"Great, now all we need is for all of her followers to stand still in a large closely gathered group, then we can free them all. Easy!"

Rose's sarcasm would have cut a lesser man like a knife, but the Doctor just smiled and replied, "Sounds like a plan to me." Rose rolled her eyes back so much she felt she could see the poriatal lobes of her brain.

"That's weird." Rose said simply.

"What is?" The Doctor asked, still with the smile of an eternal optimist on his face.

"I think I just thought about my poriatal lobes in the right context. Am I getting smarter or something?"

"Anything's possible." The Doctor replied, a sarcastic smirk crossing his face.

"Hey, let's not stretch the limits of credulity here Doctor." Jack commented, jumping away from Rose as he spoke, and she struck out with the back of her hand.

"Unbelievers." The loud cry shattered the groups reverie, as all their eyes turned on the source of the call. Three men stood, only about 10 meters from the group.

"Use the gizmo Doctor." Rose said swiftly.

"No, let's wait for the rest of their party to join them." They didn't have to wait long, as a large group of around 20 people joined the original 2 and slowly advanced on the party. The Doctor raised the device in his outstretched hand.

"Now to see if it does what it's supposed to do." The Doctor spoke with an air of uncertainty in his voice. But the group stopped almost immediately. He looked at the device in his hand, then looked at Rose, "Am I good or what?"

"Yeah, Fantastic." Rose replied, aping the Doctor her use of his favourite word..

"Where? What are we doing? Where are we?" The closest of the men seemed to be the first to regain his faculties. "Who are you?"

"I'm the Doctor, this is Rose, that's Androssa, and the letch trying to see through your ragged cloth garments in Captain Jack."

"Hey! No fair spoiling my fun." Jack laughed as he spoke.

"You're now free of Ariella's influence. Can you remember anything about the Citadel? It's guards, how many there are."

"I remember it all, as though in a dream. But it wasn't a dream, was it?" The Doctor shook his head mournfully. "What did that creature do to us?"

"She made you her slaves. She made you hunt and kill your own kind, as she herself fed from your very planet." Rose nudged the Doctor as she noticed the distraught look on the faces of the group of now free Megopolitans. "They've been hidden from the truth for too long Rose, it's time someone opened their eyes to the facts of the situation."

"All of our people are slaves to that creature." Androssa interjected. She must be destroyed. She must die for what she has done to us. It must end now."

"And end, it shall." From all around the group, figures appeared from the shadows. At the head of the group was the familiar figure of Illyan. These were not like the rag wearing group recently freed from their life of mind controlled stupor, these were Ariella's personal guard. A group of vampires. And they pounced.


	5. Chapter 5

"Do wooden stakes really work Doctor?" Jack asked as he nimbly dodged an attack from one of the vampire group.

"Yes. In fact, anything that can be used to destroy the necrotised tissue around the heart is an effective weapon."

"So, we go for the heart then?" Rose shouted as a vampire lunged at her, and found itself impaled on a large branch that Rose had picked off the ground. The vampire turned, first into a ball of cold flame, then to dust. Rose had seen enough episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer to know what to expect. She wiped the dust from her eyes and turned to face her next attacker. There wasn't one. "Where'd they go?"

"It's probably been a while, if ever, since they saw one of their own destroyed like that Rose, I think you've scared them off." The Doctor smiled at Rose, as a ragged cheer went up from the crowd of newly freed natives.

"You destroyed one of Her overlords? Truly you are powerful." Androsa spoke from his position in the undergrowth. "Perhaps," he added as he got to his feet, "We can drive these creatures off of our world. We can finally be free."

"That's the general idea Androsa." The Doctor smiled wryly as the beleagured scientist seemed to grow stronger from the knowledge that the creatures that had enslaved his world for so long, could be killed. He was not alone.

"We can fight them? We can win!" The words spread through the group of ex slaves like fire through a dry bush. The possibility of victory, of freedom for their entire race, put a fire in their hearts, and a determination in their souls.

They could win, against the queen's lieutenants, but the Doctor knew, only he could defeat the Queen herself. She would swat this ragtag army like fleas, and suck the life from them without so much as an afterthought.

"Have I just started a revolution here? Am I a revolutionary now?" Rose asked, looking at the band as they scrabbled around looking for makeshift weapons to use in their uprising.

"No, you're not a revolutionary Rose, you don't have the moustache for it. You just pointed out a new option to them, one that they have gladly taken to heart." The Doctor replied.

"Better than nothing eh?" Rose asked. The Doctor smiled, that goofy, toothy smile that could disarm any army. Jack just laughed out loud as he got the gag about the moustache.

Elsewhere.

The blue box that was the exterior shell of the Doctor's TARDIS was now blurred, it was as though it were in constant motion. Each and every molecule was racing to be elsewhere, grass around the ship was suddenly trampled by a sudden increase in size and mass by the vehicle. It was changing shape. Quicker than it knew it should, but as quickly as it knew it needed to.

This is more than a vehicle you understand, The TARDIS is alive, in every sense of the word, no "artificial" intelligence controls it, just pure intelligence, natural, prone to moods and emotions, just like almost every other creature in the cosmos. Right now, it knew that it's owner/friend was in trouble and needed help, and it was using every resource available not to let him down. "MY Doctor..." A faint voice cried.

The citadel of the vampire Queen was just as Androsa had described. It was immense, and well guarded, high walls with portals for weapon enplacements.

"What we need, is a distraction." The Doctor said to everyone, yet nobody in particular. "Janer, you are known to the guards here? Can you get them to open the gates?"

Janer, the new leader of the free Megapolitans looked cautious. "It is possible, but also they may have been alerted that we are no longer under the Queen's control."

"Quite right. Good point." The Doctor began to rethink his strategy, then he smiled. "All we need to do, is get them to the gate. We can then use the device that Androssa's grandfather invented to free them from the thrall, then they should be more than willing to open the gates."

Janer looked slightly dubious. But Androssa leapt forward, "Yes. It will work, it worked on all of you. You can be the bridgehead, with your help, as the first liberated members of our race, we can free the others, and destroy this hideous creature once and for all.

Janer's look of doubt vanished from his face. "Yes, we can do it. We must do it. For freedom." The cry went up, and again, the small band found themselved galvanised like never before, with an aim, like none they had known. To free their people, and their world.

"The Citadel will fall, before this day is through, our world will be free from tyranny."

"Or we could all be dead." Jack added slightly morosely. Rose quickly slapped him on the back of his head. "But no, Freedom it is then."

As the band of would be world liberators moved towards the citadel's ramparts, the ground under them began to heave, as though pushed from under them by a massive force. Something that could only be described as a talon rose from the ground, glistening in the patches of sunlight that passed through the cover of trees.

The Vampire queen was rising. ready to devour this world as the first of many, and to spawn her brood anew.

To be concluded.


	6. Chapter 6

Kingdom of the Blind: Finale.

As the ground heaved under their feet, Rose and Jack grabbed for each other, "How big is  
this thing Doctor?" Rose shouted over the roar of the moving soil and rock.

"Oh, by now? Probably the size of Greater London." The Doctor shouted back. "No big  
deal, she used to be a hundred times bigger."

"That's reassuring. Not." Rose shouted a reply as she lost her footing on a piece of ground  
that was suddenly thrust into the air.

All around the intrepid travellers, the local residents, recently freed from their mind control  
were terrified and scurrying for what cover remained within running distance. Screams of  
panic rose and were joined by death screams as poor unfortunate members of the  
populace came into contact with one of the talons of the Vampire Queen. Their life force  
was drained from them almost instantly, their bodies turned to little more than a fleshy bag  
of bones, their internal organs, drained of blood, became little more than empty sacks,  
unable to continue the existance of the poor victims.

As suddenly as it had started, the upheaval stopped, but in the distance, the citadel that  
had been built for the Queen, began to tremble, the foundations cracked, the walls turned to  
rubble. A glistening form appeared, at first Rose thought it was black, as though coated in  
oil, then the smell reached her nose, and she realised, it wasn't bathed in oil. The creature  
didn't shimmer in the colour black. It undulated, red, rhythmic, pulsating. The Queen of the  
Vampires was coated in blood.

"A Timelord?" The voice rang in Rose's mind. She hadn't heard the words, her ears would  
attest to that, but the words just formed in her mind. "I had thought the last of your kind had  
died long ago."

"Well, you can't believe everything you hear." The Doctor shouted back.

The creature laughed, not telepathically, an hideous gurgling laugh rang in the air. "That is  
well and good Time Lord. I am truly glad that one of you survived. It shall give me the  
pleasure of killing you myself." A claw lanced towards the Doctor, Rose screamed out a  
warning, but the Doctor didn't move, he stood, and he waited until the claw was almost  
upon him. Then the Vampire Queen screamed.

A putrid smell of burning flesh filled the air, Rose almost gagged, but she couldn't, her eyes  
would not let her move. She was transfixed by the events unfolding before her. The claw  
that had up to a moment ago, belonged to the Vampire Queen, now lay at the Doctor's feet,  
unmoving, and remarkably, unnatatched to the Vampire Queen. The flailing tendril to which  
it had been attatched sparked and crackled against a field of blue light.

"It's a faith shield." Rose uttered.

"Sure looks that way." Jack replied from a little way behind and below her. Rose turned,  
Jack was lying prostrate on a small rocky outcrop about half a meter below Rose's stand  
point. Rose lowered her hand to help Jack climb up to join her. Jack gratefully accepted  
the offer. "Thanks." He uttered, as he dragged himself up to Rose's higher position.   
"Holy..." Was all he could utter when he saw the full scope of the events, the size of the  
creature the Doctor now faced, alone, the task seemed insurmountable, but somehow, he  
knew the Doctor wouldn't be the one to back down.

"Well, Timelord. You have surprised me. That is rare these days. Perhaps I have been  
hidden for too long, I was unprepared for a challenge. That period of uncertainty however,  
is over. I shall kill you, then devour this world, and then find another, and another, and  
without your thrice cursed race to stand against me, this Universe shall be my larder." The  
creature laughed again. That hideous laugh that filled the air with the acrid stench of death  
passing from what must at one time have been identifiable lips.

"No." The Doctor's reply was little more than a whisper, but somehow it echoed around the  
ruins of the citadel.

"And you, I assume will be the one to prevent it? You? Alone?"

"Yes. I, but not alone, never alone!" Rose could feel the Doctor's smile, even with his back  
to her, she knew he was smiling, that disarming smile, that made him look like a fool, but  
hid such power, such intelligence and guile and power, and so much pain too.

"But you are alone, the last of the Timelord race. Your race, they died at your own hands  
did they not? That is almost poetic to me, the Timelords, brought low by one of their own. If  
Rassilon had only known."

Rose noticed the Queen's claws and tendrils stretching, feeling at the edge of the shield  
that the Doctor had created, it was as though she was probing, trying to find a weakness to  
exploit. Then it struck her. "Doctor, she's trying to.." Rose didn't manage to finish her  
sentence, one of the Queens long taloned appendages lashed out, not at Rose, but at the  
pillar of rock on which she stood. The impact made the unstable natural construct crumble.  
Rose and Jack fell from their perch and tumbled headlong into the chasm that had opened  
up during the initial tremors.

"Rose. Nooooo." The Doctor cried out. Reaching out with his hands, as though he could  
reach over the distance to grab Rose before she fell. But almost as he turned around, she  
vanished from sight.

"How many more must die for your mistakes Timelord? How many? Your entire race died  
at your hands, and now, through your folly, your companions have joined them. Such a  
waste, don't you think?"

Grief stricken, the Doctor turned back to face Ariella. Tears streaked his face. "You  
monster. She did nothing to you."

"I know. But she was in my way. She is no longer. I am the wolf, you are the lamb, she,  
your shepardess. The wolf will always win out. Life ends, but I am eternal, do you not  
realise yet? I am my own alpha and omega. The Beginning of all things, and the end of all  
things. Your time is over, you are mortal, I am not, my time has come again."

The Doctor still stared at the point where Rose and Jack had once stood, shaking slightly,  
in anger, fear and grief. "You killed them both."

"No Doctor, you did. Just as you killed the Timelord race. I may have been the instrument  
of their destruction, but you. You! Were the catalyst of their fate." The Queen goaded the  
Doctor, all the while, probing the defences he had raised to deter and restrain her. "The  
once mighty Timelord society, gone in an instant. I would have enjoyed seeing that, truly I  
would, but I will live with the sorrow of missing that joyous day, for I shall have the pleasure  
of destroying the last of the Timelords, the sole survivor, of the once proud, haughty race. I  
will have the final victory over your accursed species, as you die, so shall my kind be  
reborn." With that final declaration, the Queen's tendrils attacked the Doctor's mentally  
generated shield as one, battering and squeezing the perimeter of the field. "Your faith is  
failing you Timelord, soon your barrier shall fall, and you shall soon follow." The Queen's  
maniacal and putrid laughter filled the air again. "The scent of your fear and despair is like  
the sweet smell of rotting flesh."

"Yeuchhh. Somebody tell me she didn't just say that rotting flesh smelled sweet."

"Nope, I'm afraid she did."

"That's just gross, you know? More than a little sad too."

The Doctor's head spun to the source of the voices, he found Rose and Jack, standing on  
another outcropping, further away from the Queen, seemingly a little bruised and battered,  
but alive. The Queen screamed in pain as the field surrounding the Doctor regained it's  
strength, redoubled it's strength, and continued to grow in power, and she found herself  
unable to detatch from it.

"Faith survives Doctor. Hope survives." Rose shouted, "Oh, no wait, that's from Deep  
Impact, sorry, I'll think of something profound in a minute OK?"

"You take all the time you need Rose Tyler." The Doctor laughed loud and deep. "She's  
right your Majesty. Hope and faith do survive, because life will always find a way to survive,  
and those two things are integral to all life. That is what I believe in, the power of life, to  
overcome any obstacle, to beat the odds, to, well, just to live. That's why you can't stand  
faith. It's the embodiment of life itself, the thing that defines all living things."

The Queen continued to scream as the clawed tendrils she had so tightly wrapped around  
the Doctor's shield sizzled and burned, loosing a rank and putrid stench into the air. "Your  
race, dies here Ariella. No more shall the Great Vampires plague this Galaxy. You will die  
today, as you should have died all of those millenia ago."

"Faith alone cannot kill me Doctor." Ariella gasped, as all of her tendrils dropped from her  
body. They detatched and sloughed from her body, like skin from a snake. "I do not need  
my appendages to destroy you, I can simply drain the life from this entire world, yours  
included, Goodbye Timelord." Ariella's form moved off somewhat from the Doctor, sliding  
along the ground making a sickening squelching sound as she moved. All around her form,  
what greenery remained turned brown, then black as every last drop of life was drained  
from the soil, the plants, and any wildlife that had not been quick enough to escape the  
immediate area. The field of Death grew by the second, as Ariella soaked up the life force  
of the very world around her.

"You are of course right. Faith alone, cannot destroy you. But it did delay you. Just long  
enough for my own plan to reach fruition. Even if you had managed to kill me, you yourself  
would die. Right about now." The Doctor waited, his words hanging in the air. "I said, right  
about now."

As if spurred on by the admonishing tone in the Doctor's voice, a shadow fell upon the  
surrounding area, the Doctor smiled as he saw Ariella recoil from the thing that had cast  
the shadow.

"You recognise it then?"

"A bowship? Where did you? How?" Ariella tried in vain to back even further away from  
the approaching vessel, it was so vast, so immense, there was no possible escape from it.

"It's not a real Bowship of course. Rassilon had the fleet destroyed after we defeated you  
in the last battle. But my Tardis has the full blueprints in it's database. The last timelord,  
and the last Tardis, are about to put an end to the last of the Great Vampires."

The Tardis, in the form of a bow ship, turned and aimed at Ariella. If it were possible for the  
immense creature to squirm in fear, that is what it would have been doing, instead, it  
pulsed rapidly, it's skin undulating in near panic. "Fire." The Doctor's word, again, so  
slight, like a whisper, but echoing like a bellow. The Tardis had received the order before  
the Doctor's mouth had formed the word, and the giant bolt was let loose, flying straight and  
true to the core of the Vampire Queen.

Later, when the Doctor asked Rose and Jack what they had seen in the following seconds,  
their versions of events conflicted greatly, Rose saw flashes of light, Jack saw darkness  
folding in upon itself. The Doctor knew that both versions were accurate, but he didn't know  
why, or how.

Here's what really happened.

Ariella vanished, scant seconds before the bolt struck home. The bolt, itself, to Rose's  
estimations at least, the size of the Eiffel tower, struck home into the soil that had once  
been below the queen, it stood, quivering in the light wind, and then was gone.  
Reabsorbed into the Tardis' material mass, the Doctor explained later. Nobody knew what  
had happened, least of all the Doctor. But their confusion was brought to an end abruptly  
by the sound from above. All eyes focussed on the bow ship, or at least, what had once  
been a bowship. It folded in upon itself, creaking and groaning, and wheezing with the  
sound of the Tardis dematerializing. The bowship was very soon replaced with the familiar  
form of a Police Telephone Box, hanging in mid air, until it began to fall, at an uncotrolled  
rate of speed. It crashed solidly to the ground a few hundred meters from the crew of time  
travelers, but the shockwave knocked all but the Doctor off their feet. The Doctor himself  
doubled over, as if taxed beyond anything he had known before. Rose leapt to be with him,  
from one rocky outcrop to another, with no concern for her own safety, she jumped,  
scrambled and climbed her way to the Doctor. Finally she rested her hand on his shoulder,  
as though to lend strength to her dearest, most loved friend.

"The Tardis." The Doctor gasped, "She drained herself, she's got almost nothing left, her  
power reserves, gone. Need to recharge... " The Doctor began to fall, but he was caught,  
by the figure of Jack, who had obviously followed Rose, even though she had not heard his  
approach.

Together, Jack and Rose carried the Doctor to the Tardis, all thoughts of the Vampire  
Queen, had left them, their primary concern was the Doctor. As they reached the Tardis,  
the Doctor suddenly seemed to gain strength from the vessel, as he touched the door, the  
colour returned to his features.

"We need to recharge the Tardis. You liked our last trip to Cardiff didn't you Rose?" The  
rift will be the perfect spot."

"Oh, I can get my passport at last, I'll call Mickey once we're on our way."

"Cardiff? Isn't that out in the sticks somewhere? I'd hate to have to stay there."

"Don't worry Jack, a day or two leeching energy from the rift, and the Tardis power cells will  
be back at full charge, and we can be on our way. That is, if we have enough power left to  
get us there at the moment." The Doctor smiled as he staggered his way around the  
console, and the rotor began it's rhythmic movements.

Elsewhen.

"My lord. We have brought the intruder to you as requested."

The large figure turned and looked at the Captain of the guard, and the figure he had  
dragged to the bridge of the ship. The Captain of the Guards slapped the woman once to  
rouse her, she didn't move, he moved to slap her again, but a hand shot out and grabbed  
him. "Do that again, and you'll be eating your arm like a popsicle." The blonde head of the  
figure snapped up and her eyes took in the surroundings, "Now, I knew that I wouldn't end  
up in Kansas, but this is ridiculous. Anybody wanna clue me in as to where I am? Oh, and  
a little info about who you guys are would be nice."

The large figure, to whom the Guard had been reporting moved towards the woman, a  
smile broke on his genial face. "You have spirit. I like that. You may go Captain." The  
guard bowed slightly, his eyes never leaving the woman as he backed away.

"To answer your questions, in the order they were asked. You are aboard the flagship of  
the Timelord fleet. I am Rassilon, First, and Current president of the Timelords. We are  
about to go to war, with an enemy so immense, so evil, they cannot be allowed to survive."

"Timelord huh? I was just talking to one of your guys. Little guy, kinda smart mouth on him,  
calls himself the Doctor. Ring any bells?"

"My people are numerous, it is possible one of them uses that nom de gurre."

"Ok, so we're on a warship? Who are you fighting?"

"The Great Vampires." Rassilon replied, almost spitting the words.

"Oh great. That figures."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you're not going to believe this, but my name is..."


End file.
